Green candidate proud of 'activist' tag
By Stephen O'Brien
NEWCASTLE — The NSW Greens' number one Senate candidate, university lecturer John Sutton, is proud of his "activist" tag, which right-wing critics have levelled at him for his role on Newcastle City Council.
After being involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement, the campaign to end apartheid, and the peace and anti-nuclear movements, he was elected to the council as a Green in 1991. He was re-elected in 1995 with 25% of the vote.
Sutton told Green Left Weekly that being part of the team of three Green councillors in Newcastle has prepared him for the Senate, if he is elected. The Greens have been able to initiate many policies based on the group's principles of peace and non-violence, social and economic justice, grassroots democracy and ecological sustainability, he said.
Sutton says the Greens have been in the forefront of combatting racism and he is especially proud of his role in helping to develop the city's commitment to reconciliation with indigenous people, an initiative that is regarded as a national model. He points out that the Greens in federal parliament have been critical of government attitudes to native title since Labor PM Paul Keating first introduced the Native Title Act.
With regard to One Nation, Sutton agrees mass mobilisations against Pauline Hanson play an important role. However, Sutton believes there is a "risk" that the high school mobilisations against racism could be "overdone".
Progressive policies which Newcastle has implemented as a result of the Greens' presence on the council include the provision of affordable housing, particularly to pensioners.
Sutton believes a commitment to social justice is important. He illustrates this by pointing to the Greens' fight to force the Labor councillors to overturn a decision they originally supported which would replace the current land value rates system with a variation on the Thatcherite "poll tax".
In areas of ecological sustainability, Sutton points to the introduction of energy conservation in the city, the model "eco-house", the wind generator on Kooragang Island and the methane gas usage system at the Summerhill waste disposal plant.
Contrary to propaganda circulated by some business interests, the Greens are not anti-development, Sutton told Green Left Weekly.
In developing an environmental management plan for the city, the Greens initiated the Targeted Development Site Incentive Scheme. This is directed at loosening development controls on otherwise derelict city sites, in return for the developer's commitment to energy efficiency and water conservation.
On the important issue of the closure of the BHP steelworks, Sutton said the Greens were concerned about how to make the most of the decision. BHP decided to sell a lot of the land it owned in the industrial areas of Newcastle. Instead of allowing BHP to simply sell it off, the Greens insisted BHP meet tougher environmental and public accountability requirements.
By promoting community involvement, they were able to steer BHP's initial proposals into the "steel river" proposal. The proposal develops the concept of a "closed-loop eco-industrial concept site" where the waste of one industry becomes the raw material for the next factory downstream. According to Sutton, BHP says it is determined to make this happen.
Sutton does not think there is community support for the Democratic Socialists' demand for the nationalisation of BHP, or that public opposition to the privatisation of Telstra equates to electoral support for government take-overs of private assets.
While Sutton says he supports community and public ownership of enterprises, he believes that it needs to come from "community" initiatives rather than be imposed by government.
"Just as we are not anti-development we are not anti-industry just for the sake of it", he said. The steel river project shows that the Greens support industrial developments in Newcastle, which is in line with the group's support for a strong manufacturing base in Australia.
As an alternative to the GST, which the Greens reject, Sutton advocates eco-taxes such as a tax on resource extraction which damages and pollutes the environment. He supports compensatory measures to address any social injustice that arise from these taxes.
In the Hunter region, the Greens are fielding Nathan Ross for Charlton, councillor Liz Rene for Newcastle, Jan Davis for Paterson, James Ryan for Hunter and Rebecca Moroney for Shortland.
Sutton told Green Left Weekly he does not consider directing preferences in lower house seats to be an important issue until a progressive force, like the New Zealand Alliance, is able to marshal 20% of the vote. In the Senate, he said, the issue is more relevant.